Snapshot
by keikenchuu
Summary: [AU] Some things in life are forgotten, but take a snapshot and the memory stays with you. "If only she was here to come and view them with me…" - set in the future. Tadeshiko.


_It was just an ordinary day, like any other. Tadase propped himself up against his pillows, gazing intently at the scene outside of his bedroom window. The cherry blossoms were starting to bloom. Spring. He went to close his eyes again, but was interrupted by a loud knocking on his door. "…Come in."_

_His three children entered the room; he noticed his daughter carrying what looked like a large book. "What's this?" he asked, sitting up straighter._

_"We made you a scrapbook," his eldest son explained. "The three of us, we searched through new and old photos, looking for ones that we thought might be of most importance to you. It's to remind you of all the happy times you've had throughout you life… you know, because you keep hinting you won't be around much longer."_

_The scrapbook was passed into his hands, and he flashed a smile; the one feature that hadn't changed at all with age. "Thank you."_

_With that, his children left the room, and he turned the cover._

* * *

**_{ snapshot ; the pencil. }_**

Although several decades ago, the memory of that day was still fresh in his mind, as if it had happened yesterday. The fifteen year old Tadase certainly hadn't expected for something out of the ordinary to happen on his very first day of high school. That was the first day he laid eyes on her. He remembered being assigned to his seat, being rather glad at being placed next to a window, before taking out his books and his new pencil-case, laying them neatly among the top of his desk – it was then that he realised he had forgotten to pack a pencil. He'd turned to the girl seated to the right, hoping they would be able to help him out. "Um, sorry to bother you, but… you wouldn't happen to have a pencil I'd be able to borrow, would you?"

The girl looked up, raising an eyebrow in question. Tadase blinked, slightly taken aback by how attractive the girl was. "A pencil, was it?"

Not only was she beautiful in her looks, but her voice was too. He sat up straight, trying to compose himself; he definitely didn't want to be staring at her, no matter how pretty she was – that'd freak her out, surely. "Mm, a pencil. If you have one, that is."

"Well, you're in luck," she answered, reaching over to hand him the pencil he had asked for. "Fujisaki Nadeshiko. Nice to meet you, um…"

"Hotori Tadase, " he introduced himself, taking the pencil from her. "Thank you."

She'd insisted he keep the pencil. He still had that pencil. Not that it was usable, anyway – it was worn to a stump.

* * *

**_{ snapshot ; a surprised Tadase and a smirking Nadeshiko, captured on camera by the ever talented Nagihiko. }_**

Three years had come to an end in the blink of an eye. That day had been the perfect day for a high school graduation; sunshine and clear skies, with not a single cloud in sight. A long morning had been spent in the school gymnasium and repeatedly clapping for each graduating student. Several hours later, everyone had finally moved outside and an afternoon of tearful exchanges and picture-taking had begun. Tadase had last seen Nadeshiko during their class photo, and he wondered where she was. After posing for a couple of photos with various other classmates, he began to walk around aimlessly in an attempt to spot her.

Someone bounded up next to him, and spotting the flash of indigo hair, he turned to look hopefully – only to recognise the person as the aforementioned girl's twin brother instead of her. "You were definitely hoping I was Nadeshiko, weren't you?" Nagihiko grinned, putting an arm around Tadase and holding out his phone. "Well, as your best friend, you've gotta take a photo with me whether you like it or not. Smile!"

Almost immediately after the picture had been taken and Nagihiko had let go of him, two arms appeared around his neck and he felt a great weight hanging on his back. "Tadase-kun!" Nadeshiko grinned, patting his head before she slid off his back. "You can't take photos with my brother and not me. Nagihiko, can you take the photo, please?"

They both smiled. She moved her hand up near his head. Said hand pulled his hat off in one swift motion. Tadase's jaw dropped in surprise. Nadeshiko laughed. Nagihiko caught it on camera.

* * *

**_{ snapshot ; the two of them on the beach, looking extremely cold, but smiling widely nonetheless. }_**

"Uh—are you sure the gate was this way?"

"I'm pretty sure it is this way. Whether it's the right way or not, though…"

"You said you knew where you were going!"

Tadase laughed at Nadeshiko's irritated expression, and reached out to push the corners of her mouth up gently. "Now… turn that frown upside down. It'll be fine. We'll find the gate soon enough."

"Well, at least this is somewhat different from our usual dates. It's the middle of winter, you've gotten us lost on a beach, and it's getting dark," Nadeshiko complained, pulling Tadase's scarf from around his neck and wrapping it around her own, much to his protest. "Punishment."

He gripped her hand tighter, continuing to walk in the direction they'd been headed in for the past twenty minutes. It wasn't entirely his fault they'd ended up a hell of a long way away from the gate they used to enter the beach in the first place; walking along the sands and talking was just too distracting. Tadase narrowed his eyes, trying to see if the gate was in close proximity—"Ah, there it is! See, I told you."

"Tadase, you're an idiot."

* * *

**_{ snapshot ; the ring – of course, not taken until Nadeshiko had deemed her nails decent enough for a photo. }_**

Watching Nadeshiko paint her nails was like watching paint dry, Tadase decided. Not only did she paint slowly, but there was the first coat, then the second, then 'a third coat for luck'. All this for one simple picture of her hands. It wasn't even like anyone would be interested in looking at the rest of her hands, anyway—it was the ring they were asking to see, not her nails, for heaven's sake. Despite telling her this, Nadeshiko was insistent that no photos be taken until her nails were attractive enough.

"Done?" he asked hopefully, when she closed the lid of the nail polish.

"Done." With a nod of her head, Nadeshiko began fanning her hands to help the drying process, admiring the ring as she did so. "It sparkles when it catches the light. See?"

Tadase sighed. "Yes, I can see it's beautiful, that's why I bought it— but Nadeshiko, just let me take a photo, would you?"

* * *

**_{ snapshot ; the tiara – though not on the right person's head. }_**

The sun was just beginning to set. The large hall in which Tadase and Nadeshiko had just spent the last couple of hours was filled to the brim, their guests were beginning to get tired, some of them probably drunk, and it was starting to get unbearably warm. Surely no one would notice if they left for a couple of minutes for some fresh air. Hitching up her dress slightly to make sure she didn't trip as she walked, Nadeshiko grasped Tadase's wrist with her free hand to pull him outside.

"Nadeshiko."

"Yes?"

He kissed her forehead lightly. "You've made me the happiest person today. And I still can't get over how beautiful you look."

"You're already rather handsome yourself, but you know what would make you look even better?" Nadeshiko asked with a smirk, reaching up to remove her tiara and placing it firmly on Tadase's head. "There."

"Nadeshiko, I—you aren't going to let me take this off now, are you?"

* * *

**_{ snapshot ; the staircase. }_**

In the long time he'd known her, Tadase couldn't remember ever seeing Nadeshiko so excited. Well, maybe when he proposed to her—but that was it. For the entire ride in the van, she'd talked non-stop, barely allowing Tadase to get a word in edgeways. It seemed to him that she'd planned half their lives on the journey, from what pictures she wanted in the living room, to the colour of the tiles she wanted in the bathroom, right to the type of flowers she wanted outside the door. Even so, he couldn't blame her for being so excited; after all it was their first house. He just didn't expect her to be so excited that she tripped up the stairs approximately one minute after entering the house for the first time.

* * *

**_{ snapshot ; make up artists in the making. }_**

Nagihiko wasn't pleased.  
Earlier on, he'd thought that he wanted to spend the night watching a film with Rima, and he'd been looking forward to it until Nadeshiko had called to remind him that in fact, he'd agreed to babysit whilst she and Tadase went out for dinner. He hadn't minded that – normally the children were angels and well behaved, and he enjoyed spending time with them. He'd even been somewhat eager to come over, but had he known what would happen tonight, he wouldn't have wanted to turn up.

His charming nephews and niece had decided that tonight was the perfect time to practice their hair and make-up skills – on him. They'd plaited his hair, put bright pink eyeshadow and red lipstick on him, and even stuck a label with a messily scrawled 'Nadeshiko' on it. Currently, his niece was patting his head and addressing him as 'Mama', whilst her brothers laughed at the scene unfolding before them.

And to top it all off, when Tadase and Nadeshiko came home, the two of them laughed so hard he thought they'd collapse.

* * *

**_{ snapshot ; not like his mother, is he? }_**

Their oldest son moved across the stage gracefully, lifting his fan perfectly in time to the music. The audience seemed to approve of his dance performance too. Well, the people sitting in front of Tadase and Nadeshiko clearly did, judging by the praising comments they kept whispering to each other – "He's so graceful," and "Must be from a dancing family," to name a few.

He finished his performance, smiled at the audience charmingly, and bowed. He moved to walk off the stage. His foot caught in the hem of his kimono. He tripped. Tadase's eyes widened in concern for his son. Nadeshiko held up the camera.

* * *

_Tadase continued to flip the pages, letting out a small chuckle at most of the photos he passed. He was thankful that they'd included photos of the small, silly events in their lives as well as the significant memories; he'd forgotten quite a few of these things had happened. He was beginning to near the end of the scrapbook – maybe he'd turn these pages more slowly._

* * *

**_{ snapshot ; no such thing as a 'normal' family portrait. }_**

Placing the camera on a shelf where it would be able to capture all of them, Tadase set up the self-timer and went to resume his position before the ten seconds were up. Nadeshiko had insisted on a family photo, since there hadn't been one of the five of them in a while. Despite their two elderly parents informing them that they wanted a 'normal' family portrait, the three (middle aged, mind you) children had decided that no, that was not happening, and had proceeded to pull faces and hold peace signs behind their parents' heads. That was the last photo of the five of them together.

* * *

**_{ snapshot ; smiles – the last one. }_**

He remembered when Nadeshiko had suggested they take a photo of themselves each day – 'for memories', she'd said. The hair ribbon she was wearing in the photo, by this point it was frayed at the ends, and so old that it couldn't even be described as red anymore; but it was Nadeshiko's favourite. Looking at their smiling faces, not once that day had it crossed his mind that the following morning, she would no longer be there.

* * *

_Tadase traced his finger over the photo, before he closed the book and sighed. Once again, he glanced outside at the cherry blossoms and smiled weakly. "If only Nadeshiko was here to come and view them with me…"_

* * *

**[a/n:]** I'm not sure how the plot for this came about, but I thought it'd make an okay oneshot.  
They're pretty OOC half the time but then again this is an AU so- hopefully that's not too much of an issue. uwu (and hopefully the formatting isn't too confusing or anything orz)  
I thought some of these would be more fitting for Rimahiko, but I love Tadeshiko just as much and we don't have enough of it in the archive so I kept it Tadeshiko. ^^  
Any reviews are appreciated o/


End file.
